Implementing public health in secondary care: a Rotherham perspective on strategy development and implementation

This paper reports an approach to develop and implement a public health strategy in secondary care and uses smoking cessation as a means for measuring success.

Rotherham Foundation Hospital Trust recognized its unique role to promote, prevent and protect health and well-being in Rotherham. Following consultation across key departments, the trust developed a public health strategy encompassing five priorities.

We report ongoing commitment and engagement following the launch of the public health strategy. Over a period of one year (April 2008 to March 2009) 269 front-line staff were trained on smoking cessation brief interventions. We report 890 referrals to smoking cessation, resulting in 414 setting a quit date and 143 four-week quitters (35% conversion rate). Despite progress in implementing smoking cessation, more communication is required to ensure that GPs and hospital staff continue to maximize patient outcomes through brief interventions.

The paper provides an approach to implement public health in secondary care. The Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework would be a useful tool to ensure key public health areas such as smoking cessation are systemized in secondary care.